UAE (and Beyond) Live: 10 Months in Prison for Tweeting About a Trial

See also Syria Live: A Car Bomb in Damascus
Monday's Syria Live: The Back-and-Forth Battle in Aleppo

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1441 GMT: Egypt. Dutch journalist Rena Netjes was arrested in Cairo on Monday night on allegations of espionage.

Netjes was working on a story when she was apprehended by the owner of a coffee shop, using Egypt's new powers of "citizen's arrest", who had asked to see her press card and passport before taking it to the police.

After spending several hours waiting in the police station, Netjes said the report against her contained erroneous allegations. The report said she was a danger to Egypt and was attempting to spread Western culture.

1440 GMT: Bahrain. The pro-regime Gulf Daily News has accused the US Embassy of feeding instructions to opposition groups taking part in the "National Dialogue", claiming representatives of those groups then leaked live updates from closed sessions over the Internet.

The newspaper claims, "The so-called opposition were shamelessly using wireless technology to pass minute-by-minute accounts to their masters."

1140 GMT: Israel and Palestine. Joanna Paraszczuk takes apart the earlier report (see 0945 GMT) that US Secretary of State John Kerry is going to jump-start the frozen Israel-Palestinian peace process by emphasising economic development.

While Kerry did not share details of the plan, an unnamed Palestinian official hinted that the proposals will involve "capacity-building" of certain areas of the West Bank, mostly in Area C territories over which Israel has full security and civilian control --- he specifically mentioned tourism projects on the north bank of the Dead Sea.

Significantly, Israel's media either did not mention or glossed over such capacity-building proposals, given the controversy they provoke. Instead, the report focused on other issues that are likely to be a sticking-point for talks, such as whether Israel would share its proposal for borders and whether Palestine would recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Left-leaning daily Haaretz was mostly positive, noting that Kerry said he sought to jump-start the stalled peace talks and that he thought progress could be made, but its Hebrew edition did not mention an Area C capacity-building plan.

Maariv mentioned a "suggestion" by Kerry regarding "the approval of plans for around ten illegal Palestinian communities and the promotion of construction and infrastructure programs in Area C".

Maariv also quoted sources in Israel and the West as saying that a prerequisite for talks would be that the Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state. This was "designed to lower the Palestinians' demand that Israel freeze settlement construction and produce a map showing borders [in the West Bank]". Maariv noted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not be able to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to freeze settlement construction."

The Palestinian press were also more cautious than the New York Times about the offers Kerry made to Abbas.

The Palestinian Authority's official news agency, Wafa, commented on the Maariv report, saying that Israel had "put forward impossible conditions for a return to talks that will not be acceptable to the Palestinians".

A report a day earlier by Wafa also quoted Maariv as saying that Israel would refuse to provide Abbas with a map setting out the borders for a two-state solution.

Ma'an News reported that Kerry offered Abbas incentives to get him to return to direct talks with Israel, including a proposal to "allow Palestinians to build more freely in the West Bank".

Ma'an also said Kerry proposed getting Israel to release Palestinian funds and a guarantee that Israel would not withhold Palestinian tax revenue.

1100 GMT: Egypt. President Morsi has called for an investigation into the attacks on mourners at Abbasiya Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday.

The clash, after funerals for Coptic Christians killed on Saturday near Cairo, killed two and injured 90.

The statement from Morsi's office claimed the violence started after mourners vandalised cars on Ramses Street and local people responded by throwing stones and launching fire crackers:

The situation further escalated with the use of guns and pellet guns, according to the neighbourhood's security official.

Cameras captured individuals taking guns, Molotov cocktails and rocks onto the cathedral's roof, as well as in and out of the building. This prompted police to intervene and disperse the clashes with tear gas.

The prosecutor-general has called for an investigation into the violence and sent the victims’ bodies for a forensic autopsy, the statement added.

It concluded, “The Presidency further stresses that it will not allow anyone to divide the nation, incite sedition, or drive a wedge among Egyptians under any pretense. It is doing all it can to enforce the rule of law and hold the assailants [of the attacks] accountable."

Egypt's leader of the Christian charge responded with skepticism. “I appreciate the feelings of the president and the government, but feeling are not enough,” Pope Tawadros II said. “There should be decisive, clear and satisfactory decisions.”

0945 GMT: Israel and Palestine. US Secretary of State John Kerry, during his trip to Israel and Palestine, has signaled that he is hoping to use economic development of the West Bank as the basis for a new set of Middle East peace negotiations.

Kerry told reporters after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials that he wanted to move on the “economic front because that can be critical to changing perceptions and realities on the ground, all of which can contribute to forward momentum".

After meeting on Sunday night with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority --- which oversees the West Bank --- Kerry met on Monday with Salam Fayyad, the West Bank Prime Minister, and Shimon Peres, the Israeli President.

0445 GMT: UAE. A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced a man to 10 months in prison after he tweeted details of the trial of his father and 93 other people accused of plotting to seize power.

Abdulla al-Hadidi was arrested on 21 March on charges of publishing "in bad faith" false details of a public trial session on the Internet. He was acquitted of using force and violence with public officials during the trial.

The day before the arrest, officials from the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi had informed Hadidi and several other relatives of the defendants that family members would no longer be allowed to attend the trial.

The sentence will be appealed, according to an activist.

Many of the 94 defendants belong to al-Islah, a local Islamist group which has called for peaceful reform. The regime accused them of "belonging to an illegal, secret organization ... that aims to counter the foundations of this state in order to seize power and of contacting foreign entities and groups to implement this plan". The Attorney General, Salem Saeed Kubaish, said members of the group had sought to penetrate institutions of the state, including schools, universities and ministries.

A source close to the UAE regime said yesterday that it "is not our practice to comment on court deliberations and rulings".